Medical Society Says We Are Not Media

The American College of Rheumatology has decided that MedPage Today is not the media, and is therefore throwing up numerous barriers to our planned coverage of its annual meeting.

If you're reading this, you're probably familiar with what we do, and your reaction is likely to be the same as mine: Huh?

Here's what the ACR told me in an email when I submitted a press registration form for the society's annual meeting in October:

"Publications that are sponsored by a single organization are ineligible to receive press credentials."

Not exactly. Two pharmaceutical funders supported our coverage, in exchange for the right to have its logo appear on our stories, but we have numerous other funders without which we could not present the breadth of coverage we now bring you. But, whatever.

The ACR e-mail went on to say: "Organizations-and writers/employees working on behalf of those organizations-that develop educational programs (including CME) based on ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting content are ineligible to receive press credentials. Again, as it appears on the MedPage Today Web site, CME was offered based on last year's meeting."

That much is true, and probably represents the real crux of ACR's problem. CME is a competitive business and evidently the ACR believes that if you and your physician colleagues can get CME credit for reading our stories, they'll feel less need to attend the meeting in person.

Personally I think that's balderdash. I find it hard to imagine that anyone serious enough about rheumatology to consider attending ACR's annual meeting could be lured away by the 0.25-point credits available with our stories. Last year we published 10 stories from the ACR meeting. That's 2.5 credits total. How many rheumatologists would find that an adequate substitute for actually attending the meeting?

But okay, maybe CME is more cutthroat than I thought and ACR believes the best competition is no competition. I can understand it even though I don't agree with it. Here is what really stuck in my craw:

"Any use of the program content, which includes but is not limited to oral presentations, audiovisual materials used by speakers and program handouts, is expressly prohibited, without the written consent of the ACR and the presenter. This policy applies before, during and after the annual meeting. Finally, the names, insignias, logos and acronyms of the ACR, the ARHP and the REF are proprietary marks. Use of the names in any fashion, by any entity, for any purpose, is prohibited without the written permission of the ACR."

Whoa! Has ACR heard of the First Amendment? How about the "fair use" clause in the copyright law? Sorry, ACR, but you're not a private club. You can't keep me from writing down and publishing what I hear at your meeting. You also can't keep me from using your name. That's settled law.

ACR also should remember that much of the research presented at its meetings is government-funded. It's kind of astonishing, if not flatly illegal, that a medical society would try to assert ownership or control of publicly sponsored research.

We will provide coverage of the ACR meeting, of course. But while ACR's foolishness won't prevent us from doing what we do, it's a hindrance.

If you agree that MedPage Today's coverage of the ACR's meeting is important to you and that we should be granted the same privileges as other media, please send a note to Tammy Tilley, staff contact for the ACR's committee on communications and marketing. For the really incensed, Sherine Gabriel, MD, is the ACR's sitting president.

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